Extra safety – in storage and measurement

New radar level sensor VEGAPULS 64 for liquids: The front-flush antenna of PTFE has very high chemical resistance and needs no seal.

In some industries, the specific safety requirements go far beyond what is prescribed by TÜV or national laws. Especially great is the need for safety in the petroleum processing industry, for example in storing liquid gas in spherical tanks. Thanks to the powerful signal focusing of the new VEGAPULS 64, new areas of application for non-contact radar measurement technology are now opening up.

A little on the technical background: In oil refineries, there are increasingly strict requirements that sensors are generally be mounted through ball valves. This is to ensure that if required, sensors can be exchanged safely and easily, even during operation. Until now VEGA has generally not recommended this kind of installation for radar level sensors because the additional mounting socket and the ball valve itself cause strong interference and false echoes at close range. Especially if a sensor was used to detect overfilling, sometimes the relatively small echoes from the medium could not be reliably detected due to this strong noise generated near the sensor.

With VEGAPULS 64, the impact of the ball valve is much lower, as the sensor has vastly better signal focusing and the mounting socket and ball valve thus reflect far fewer signals. Thanks to the higher frequency, 80 GHz, there are now considerably more possibilities for mounting sensors on shut-off valves than ever before. Another advantage for the user: the new sensor can be installed on existing shut-off devices – this keeps modification and retrofitting costs to a minimum.

The first sensors in the field have shown that the new VEGAPULS 64 qualifies as a truly universal sensor. Besides LPG tanks without standpipe, it can also measure the level reliably in practically any kind of storage or process tank.